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Researchers find cancer indicator

Gene specialists at Academia Sinica have spotted a new referential indicator of liver cancer related to the hepatitis B virus, a finding that could prove helpful in the development of new diagnostic procedures, sources at the institution said yesterday.

The indicator, discovered by members of Academia Sinica’s Genomics Research Center, involved a DNA examination of the genotype of hepatitis B virus. For example, if a patient is found to carry genotype C, the risk of developing cancer can be as high as double as for those carrying genotype B.

Meanwhile, if mutations are found in the hepatitis B virus, the risks can increase or decrease, depending on the region where the mutation occurs.

The risks are twice as high if the mutation occurs in the basal core promoter and reduced to one-third of general incidence if the mutated area is in the precore region.

The team’s findings will be published in the Aug. 20 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), a research fellow at the center and the former chief of the National Science Council and a co-author of the paper, explained that the team had spotted an indicator in a previous study published in 2002, but that it had failed to provide a comprehensive explanation for liver cancer development.

The indicator found at that time was the E surface antigen of the hepatitis B virus.

If a blood test for the antigen was positive, the risk of cancer was six times higher than for patients who tested negative for the antigen.

“However, compared to normal people, those patients who are negative for E surface antigens still have relatively higher risks of liver cancer, which shows that there should be another more effective, accurate index for liver cancer diagnosis,” Chen said.

Academia Sinica said the team’s study followed 4,155 participants from seven towns in Taiwan beginning in 1991.

After the study was concluded in 2004, the researchers compared data from people who carried the DNA segments of hepatitis B virus in their blood and eventually developed liver cancer with the virus DNA carriers that did not develop cancer.

In the process, they found different genotypes of the hepatitis B virus that may be correlated to liver cancer development among patients infected with the hepatitis B virus.
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